Edgar: No Flip-flop On Incinerators

May 30, 1990|By Rick Pearson, Chicago Tribune.

SPRINGFIELD — Five months before Republican gubernatorial candidate Jim Edgar proposed a moratorium on new incinerators in Illinois, he encouraged the state to look toward incineration as an alternative to putting solid waste in landfills.

Aides to Edgar, the incumbent secretary of state, said the candidate`s comments did not represent a flip-flop on the issue since he did not rule out a possible future need for incinerators, but proposed a moratorium if they did not meet local concerns and national air quality guidelines.

``He didn`t say there will be no more incinerators. What he said was we need a system in place to put more emphasis on recycling, protecting the environment and allowing potential neighbors a significant say in the matter. I don`t think that, in any way, contradicts what he said before,`` said Edgar spokesman Mike Lawrence.

Touching upon a subject of controversy in Chicago`s south suburbs, Edgar last week traveled to Bedford Park to call for a ban on incinerators until the state develops comprehensive guidelines assuring local citizen input and that incinerators will meet proposed federal Clean Air Act quality standards.

In a statement, Edgar said a comprehensive state waste disposal policy is needed that emphasizes ``recycling and clearly protects the rights of those who live near proposed sites for incinerators or landfills.``

But in an interview with the Associated Press in December, Edgar said the state should move away from an over-reliance on landfills to solve a growing solid waste storage crisis, in part by fostering development of safer incinerators and encouraging their use as an alternative to trash disposal. In that interview, Edgar also said local governments might find that trash incinerators could be a source of fuel for power plants, providing electricity at a low cost to consumers.

Electricity and controversy are the byproducts of an incinerator proposal in Robbins, which is under Illinois Environmental Protection Agency review. The proposed incinerator would process 1,600 tons of garbage a day, recycling 400 tons of glass and metal and burning the rest to generate electricity.